Edinburgh International Film Festival — A–Z of films

The boy discovers his father’s failings as he grows up and is hurt by them. His mother has always known, but she is of an older generation where wives were expected to suffer in silence.

Simple and meditative cinema.

There can be little question that it is a masterpiece.

The problem is, you are left wanting to know far more than Fedda tells you.

The cast put in an excellent performance and manage to be distinct in a film where uniforms, dirt and camouflage face paint make it difficult to tell men apart.

It is the depth of the characters coupled with the breadth of the acting talent that make this film so watchable.

This is a heartwarming film in the truest sense of the word.

Once again Li Yang, has directed a fascinating portrayal of the contradictions inherent in the world’s fastest growing economy.

Congratulations are in order to Shattered Glass helmer Billy Ray for playing it straight and subtle, resisting the temptation to jazz up the action quota and indulge in Hollywood speechifying.

Breath is an icy, chilling love story. It looks at a bond that goes beyond the simplicities of life and death.

Bridge Over The Wadi packs a tremendous emotional punch.

Clever direction helps us empathise with Gemma, not just peer in at her life voyeuristically.

Only 15 minutes into this instant classic I thought ‘this is a bloody masterpiece’.

Love, life, poetry, passion, sensitivity, all magnificently exalted in song – quite a lot of songs actually – for your cross-Channel delectation and savouring.

This is not a very nuanced view of the situation, but it really doesn’t pretend to be.

A monument to the days before the multiplexes.

The tension and sense of death is like a physical barrier to sanity’s guiding hand.

The action sequences are stunning, the special effects impressive.

Death Proof is as much an experience as it is a movie for those who love movies.

As entertaining as it is exhilarating.

As an observational piece, it is very accomplished.

As a work of fiction focusing on human rights, as a protest film, it is first rate. But as cinema entertainment it may well be swamped by similar themed films using larger budgets.

As gratuitous and confrontational a story as you’re likely to come across.

The water rippling around the village mirrors the ebb and flow of relationships within Salif Traoré’s film.

One of the best short films on show at EIFF 2007.

For all its many flaws, Flying: Confessions Of A Free Woman is a considered triumph of filmmaking.

Hodge is confident and clever enough to let the story tell itself

Shakespeare's most popular history... lashings of style, wit and theatrical skill, all shot in Glorious Technicolor.

Like girls who rely on their beauty to get what they want, Rose has faith in her ability to charm men into bed and, if required, move in with her and pay the bills.

Hawke’s writing is hot on the money, as close as you know to the false bravado and insecure hope of a lost boy.

The film has a wistfulness, which draws you in.

One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.

Wipe your mucky paws on your jeans and feast your face on this debauched, late-night, scumbag of a brilliant movie.

Menzel has crafted a visual extravaganza.

Chan-wook Park has crafted perhaps the most original film of the year and one of the most moving.

This is a dark, perverted, gritty, romantic comedy that, like a new relationship, comes with big indie warts-and-all.

A poetic and almost philosophical reflection on the restlessness of city life.

It is so British, it out Montys Python.

It is hard-hitting, but with none of the fake, over-the-top violence of Hollywood fare, and packs an emotional punch without dredging it with sugar.

As a stand-alone documentary feature it is perhaps more suited to late night cable channels.

Move over, Damien.

Although at times it verges on turning into CSI Riyadh, The Kingdom is ultimately much smarter and better informed than most of its ilk.

Judd Apatow has marked himself out as the leader of the pack when it comes to delivering effortless and believable raunchy comedy.

The characters are like people whom someone let out of Tarantino's locked cellar.

Cobain’s story is perfectly juxtaposed with some spectacular photography. 

Mészáros seems to knows his stuff when it comes to art, and has shaped a clever reflection of his rococo painter's theme.

By comprimising his film to bring the characters together, and yet failing to inject the irony or imagery of a director such as Jodowrosky, this falls short.

Legacy is a brave and curious film, taking a popular premise and turning it on its head.

A documentary for the ears as well as the eyes.

Displays an artistry all of its own, quite unlike the thrown-together 'qualities' of your typical behind-the-scenes extra.

Many comparisons have been made to Charlie Kaufman and rightly so.

A moody, raw piece of cinema.

Did he cheat, lie, fake it, fudge it, fiddle the facts, remove evidence, fabricate evidence, spin the wheel, orchestrate the action? Probably.

Higgins has done a good job in telling an untold story of political deception of which there are probably hundreds, but far less trendy than Iraq or the middle-east.

Though undoubtedly a great actress, Jolie has reached the point where her personal life dwarfs any role she could conceivably play.

The forlorn beauty of The Man From London might inspire you to question the assumptions we make about cinema.

Overall, the shorts in this programme are lacking a bit in imagination, with The Accident, by Sara Nesturuk, being the only one to transcend the genre.

This is a wonderful little film, a delightful portrait of two very different characters, and in some ways a meditation on the nature of faith and desire.

Once the initial idiosyncrasies have been absorbed, the film becomes repetitious and some contrast would have been welcome.

Fascinating and educative.

The sentimental nature of the film lets it down somewhat.

Like the best works of art, John Carney’s Once is both melancholy and beautiful, a fragile poem that seems almost too delicate for the big screen.

Another excellently shot and alarming document of troubled times in Africa.

While the accompanying imagery is quite impressive, it is more of a distraction than an aid to the story.

There are many remarkable things about this unusual movie.

Among the welter of films I am watching in the course of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, it is the images from Phantom Love that continually haunt me.

Well-made and great to look at - but strictly for fans only.

Comes as something of a disappointment, this is the first Pixar film that one suspects could have been done live-action.

This is one of those films I will tell all my friends they MUST see, especially if they’ve been having a bad year.

What makes Rocket Science endearing will doubtless make it infuriating to some, but those that could like it will like it a lot.

Olivier's performance is immensely intelligent, fiercely energetic, unnervingly funny and deeply disturbing

Riza is an interesting character study in which badness takes on a worryingly ambiguous mantle. Its merit is the ambiguous questions and awkward character study it presents.

Democracy isn’t something we have, it’s something we do.

The best reason to see this might be to witness raw talent rearing its head on a non-existent budget.

The Serpent is a thriller of infinite cunning and surprise. It is unlikely that you will be more frightened in a cinema this year.

I'm questioning a movie that just positively begs someone to watch while consuming a large wad of illegal hallucinogens - I should give up asking for sense.

John Webster keeps his documentary simple and to the point.

Despite the pantomime nature of the story, a collection of engaging performances really draws the viewer in.

By keeping the central theme simple, Edgar and his team are free to explore the nature of the relationships and the characters in the classroom alongside bigger themes such as attitudes to disability from within the community and without.

This is a crisply professional production, beautifully shot. The landscapes of Scotland are breathtakingly presented.

La Soledad hinges on a central conceit that weighs heavily, but if it can be accepted it is the key to a work of staggering power.

A really enjoyable yarn in the Princess Bride mold, told with panache.

In the mindscape of Alice Through The Looking Glass, the surrealism of Steve’s predicament would be a footnote to The Patriot Act: Fear Or Frenzy?, if it wasn’t so tragic.

As a sample of guerrilla film-making it is accomplished, in that the passengers seem completely unaware that their stories are being documented.

It's refreshing to see a British film that aims for the freewheeling, semi-improvised feel of Scorsese's Mean Streets.

Tekkonkinkreet is beautiful, and ably uses its visual appeal in service of an exciting fable.

Lichtenstein takes the myth of vagina dentata and gives it a kitsch horror/comedy makeover, to surprisingly smart and sassy effect.

Radical feminist cry of pain it might be, but Twisted Sister can still feel like being locked up with the stereotype for an hour and a half.

Aziz handles this complicated subject well.

It’s sweetly done, well-observed and nicely acted, but I did find I was asking myself the whole way through ‘why is it that so many British films feel as though they are ‘made for TV’?’

The sort of documentary that restores your faith in humanity.

Shankland dispenses with subplots almost as quickly as bodies, but his debut rattles along at a nice, taut pace.

Instantly forgettable but enjoyable enough.

Studied long shots of a factory, belching smoke into a grey sky, and the desolate waste ground of land grown tired of ruin have a poetic lyricism that leaches into the body of the film.

There are moments of joy, so sublime you feel your heart swell with the sound of the children’s voices and segments of sadness as sharp as a scalpel.

What Would Jesus Buy has a timely message.

The film rejects the stereotypes that frequently dog gay characters, allowing them to flourish, although the female protagonists feel less fleshed out

Darin... again proves that he can break your heart with a look, conveying unspoken emotion with a glance that taps you into his pain.

One of the rare chick flicks that doesn’t appear to hate women, Year Of The Dog contains its essentially sappy narrative within a membrane of stabbing humor and ingenious reaction shots.

This is, in places, a deeply disturbing film... yet the touching scenes, when they come, have a surprisingly emotional depth.

Fear festers like the cut of a rusty scythe.